In 1986, Alan MacDiamid won a Nobel Prize for his work in conductive polymers. In his U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,640, MacDiamid disclosed the chemical nature of polyaniline and the five possible states of oxidation. At that time, polyaniline was synthesized by chemical routes, and later stimulated into various electrical states by electrochemistry. In the early 1990's, researchers such as V. Gupta and M. Pasquali, published the construction of polyaniline and polypyrrole conductive nanowires by electrochemical synthesis in acids such as Hydrochloric, Sulphuric and Perchloric acids. These films had very high electrolytic performance, but were fairly unstable physically and electrically, decomposing in use. Over the years since then, gradual increases in chemical stability have been achieved by including dopant donors such as sulphonic acid. In this case, the RSO3− anion is synthesized into the polyaniline, creating a more stable material, albeit at the expense of slower growth or poorer adhesion at the electrode. Since the initial work, many papers have been published regarding electrochemical and chemical synthesis; however, there has been a distinct lack of implementation of the most useful forms of conductive polymers due to the delicate nature of “brush” like features. The loose fibers or nano-texture can mat down during assembly to the opposing electrode, reducing most of the useful surface area. The current collectors for the studies have been primarily noble metals, which are costly and therefore, limiting to commercial applications. Lack of adhesion to other less noble metals primarily due to oxidation has also limited their use. Commercial applications of conductive polymers have therefore been via the bulk chemical (granular) synthesis route, where the available specific surface areas are as much as ten times less as compared to the more delicate electrochemically grown nano-texture.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for producing nano-textured conductive polymers on non-noble metal electrodes wherein the delicate nature of these very high surface area materials is preserved during the continuous electrochemical synthesis, drying, solvent application and physical assembly and repetitive charge and discharge.